He was a vulnerable young Dublin man, a drug addict, who was framed by the police for a double murder he didn’t commit. A brutal, ritualistic murder with satanic overtones.

He was jailed for it, and remained in jail for seven more months even after another man committed an identical murder in Roscommon, and confessed to the Dublin killings. You see, Dean Lyons signed a confession describing in great detail a murder he didn’t commit, and the layout of a house he was never inside. How did he come to know such things, and how did he come to sign such a confession?

How indeed.

He died a miserable junkie’s death in England shortly after his release.

The government commissioned an investigation, and a reporter, Mick McCaffrey, reported on its findings. Fabricated evidence. Intimidation. Suppression of evidence. False imprisonment.

Were the police who fabricated the evidence prosecuted as a result?

No.

Were the police who intimidated Dean Lyons into confessing prosecuted?

No.

So was anyone at all arrested?

Yes: the journalist was prosecuted.

Well, you might be glad to know that no charges were brought against him, but that a policeman has finally been charged with something.

Good, you say. Are these charges to do with fabricating evidence or beating a confession out of a suspect?

Eh, no, in fact. They’re not. The only charge to be brought in the case is against a policeman for leaking the report to the journalist.

Are cops even allowed to talk to press?
This and similar stories are exactly all the more reason why capital punishment is so scary. Imagine being wrongly accused and then murdered (by the hands of law). Then, a little while later it turns out you weren’t guilty after all. (Not that I’d ever condone or support the practice of taking a life in punishment for a crime, regardless of just / unjust trial and conviction).

I read, when the it finally came out, that the then Justice Minister, Mad Dog McDowell, somehow felt the report, filled as it was with tales of coercion, fabrication, and other corrupt practices, would “be of some comfort to those whose lives have been so deeply afflicted by this tragedy – in particular the family of Dean Lyons and the families of the murder victims.”

Of course, he immediately sprang into action and sent a copy of the report to the Garda Commissioner “for his consideration,” in the manner of one passing around mints after a dinner party. Try the brandy?

The men in power have shown such disregard for the rule of law and common decency in the last decade or so that it appears the general population has given up complaining about them and have decided to get on with their lives without comment. What we need a Peter Finch character who will publicly and loudly say, “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore…” or maybe a world class loonie, preferably serving in the army, who’s willing to blow his career for the good of the country by leading a battalion of troops to Leinster House and locking up the lot of them. Then when the eyes of the world turn towards the little island and the corrupt fuckers are paraded and their dealings laid bare…

…Maybe something good would come of it…

it’s not safe to come home yet…

What, nurse, it’s time for my tablets again… and a sponge bath… I can hear the …

No Bock, you make valid, well informed and enviably well written reports on policing here, so my rant is not do with the way you expressed your point. If a Martian was to visit Limerick, what would he make of the police if, he was to listen to the media only. He wouldn’t hear that the community cop was above in my son’s class yesterday explaining the rules of the road, or that one of the lads above in the local is a retired policeman, or that clatter of kids who play outside my house, well their father is a plain clothes detective. Each of these individual cops are honest to goodness, decent men and are ashamed at the McBrearity situation and also the Dean Lyons tragedy and all the other fuck ups. Yes, the media have a positive role to play in getting the shit our there, but surely we must be careful not to tar them all with the same brush. There’s a dank and stagnant morale problem in the police force now, and they’re fearful too. The joe-soap cop gets is major pissed off with the coverage the uniform is getting and yet, he still has to take the scumbag heat. We should be mindful of his plight.